Financial institutions, such as banks and the like, not unlike other businesses, are highly concerned with customer satisfaction. In this regard, the experiences that the customer encounters when interfacing with the financial institution shape the customer's perceptions and attitudes toward the bank, which, in turn, may influence the customer's tendency to do business with the bank or increase the volume of business with the bank.
Paramount to the issue of customer perception is the experience that a customer encounters when initially visiting a financially institution to inquire about available products and/or services or open accounts. Traditionally, the initial encounter has been provided in an environment whereby the financial associate or personal banker sits at desk, queries the customer with multiple personal questions, inputs the answers to the queries in a personal computer, which, in turn, returns financial product and/or service options to the customer. The personal banker then explains the options or recommendations to the customer as a means of marketing what the bank may have to offer the customer.
Unfortunately, this traditional dynamic for providing financial product/service recommendations and explaining product/service options is, in most instances, not viewed as a highly collaborative effort between the customer and the banking associate. Other than answering the questions posed by the banking associate during the initial interview process, many of which are limited to questions concerning the customer's current financial portfolio, the involvement of the customer in the recommendation process is limited.
If the initial exposure by the customer to the bank is made more of a collaborative effort and involves more insight into the customer's current, as well as long-term financial needs, more trust can be established at the onset of the relationship between the customer and the financial institution. Not unlike other business or personal relationships, by establishing trust from the onset the customer is more apt to seek additional financial products and services in the future.
Additionally, traditional financial product/service interaction between customers and banks is limited in the type of information that is acquired from the customer and, in turn, used to make financial product/service recommendations. In many instances, the information that is relied on to make financial product/service recommendations is related to the current customer's financial portfolio. The problem with solely relying on customer financial portfolios is two-fold. First, a customer may be reluctant to be forthright with divulging all of their current financial assets and/or debts, in which case, the bank is left to make financial product/service recommendations or offers based on inaccurate information. Moreover, by relying solely on financial portfolio information, the recommendations and offers afforded the customer do not account for future foreseen events in the customer's lifetime that may have an impact on the financial products/services that are currently of value to the customer or may have value in the future.
Therefore, a need exists to develop methods, systems, computer program products and the like which provide for an interactive and collaborative customer experience that results in financial product recommendations and selection by the customer of the same. The collaborative nature of the customer experience should be one that results in establishing trust between the customer and the financial institution. In addition, the collaborative nature of the customer experience should rely on more than financial portfolio information in determining customer needs and, hence, financial product/services recommendations.